“He was, like me, wanting to focus more on creative work, as opposed to touring, touring, touring”: Steven Wilson and Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt are going to make another album together

Opeth singer/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt says that he and Steven Wilson are “constantly talking” about making more music together.

The two prog musicians, who’ve been close friends for almost three decades, made a collaborative record in 2012 called Storm Corrosion, which was met with critical acclaim and has left many fans desperate for a follow-up.

The Opeth man says in a new interview with Hammer that he and Wilson’s touring and album cycles have finally synced up again, and that they spoke about a second team-up while on the road in Australia at the end of last year.

“We’re constantly talking about it,” Åkerfeldt says. “We are going to try something at some point. How, when, et cetera, I don’t really know, but I met Steve recently. I went to see his show and we went out for a drink afterwards and hung out and talked a bit.

“He was, like me, wanting to focus more on creative work for a period of time – as opposed to touring, touring, touring – which gives us an opening for a thing like that. He’s finished touring his last record [2025’s The Overview] and we’re touring our record [2024’s The Last Will And Testament] until the end of this year.”

When asked if their next collaboration would be another Storm Corrosion album or something else, Åkerfeldt answers: “I think the idea is always Storm Corrosion 2. But, knowing me and knowing Steve, we don’t really have a blueprint to follow, apart from the fact that we did a record [almost] 15 years ago.

“I don’t think we’re going to follow the specific tone we set with that record, and depending on what comes out of it – if anything comes out of it – if it’s something that we would think is Storm Corrosion, then it’s Storm Corrosion.”

Wilson and Åkerfeldt first met in the early 2000s, after a journalist gave then-Porcupine Tree frontman Wilson a copy of Opeth’s 1999 album Still Life and he was impressed with the recording. Wilson co-produced Opeth’s 2001 breakthrough album, Blackwater Park, and sang lead vocals on the chorus of the second song, Bleak. He went on to co-produce two more Opeth albums: 2002’s Deliverance and 2003’s Damnation.

Another potential collaboration that Åkerfeldt recently spoke about is one with Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. Talking to Hammer, the singer/guitarist said that the two men are yet to make music together, despite Portnoy saying that he wants to multiple times, as they haven’t agreed on what the project’s “purpose” would be.

“I love Mike,” Åkerfeldt told us, “but I remember, once, we sat down and talked, [and I asked] ‘If we were to do something, what do you wanna do?’ He said he wanted to do something heavy. My mindset at the time was like, ‘I’d rather do something not heavy.’ We weren’t seeing eye-to-eye, at least at that point.”

Åkerfeldt and Portnoy were briefly a part of Storm Corrosion together, during the band’s early planning phase. However, in 2010, Åkerfeldt said that Portnoy was no longer involved because “there’s just no room for drums on what we’ve done so far”.